Subset BC - Album Review: Subset BC
Here’s an
interesting little thing from Gisborne. A funky little band with three bass
players. Why?
That’s why and because. Because they get Lost On The Corner in a groove-soaked funk with delicate keyboard surround. Because they asked themselves a question, back in 2016, what does a band with three bass players sound like?
They are called Subset BC, which adds to the enigma.
Guess what, track 2 starts with a bass riff, and veers away into a psych dream but still funk. KOB. What does that mean? I should have asked.
Subset BC comprises of Lincoln Wright, Matt Tong, Ryan Raggett, Paulus McKinnon and Charles Barrie, and three of them play bass. They used to be a bass club and things went on from there. To drums and keys. More than just drum ‘n bass.
This is music for the dance floor, a place I rarely visit, but even at home there’s a hypnotic feel and a Hazy Beis which might be code for something synthetic.
Plains has a simple rhythmic underpin and dreamy chord sequences. Yes, I can imagine the Dome Bar humming down in Gizzy on launch night a couple of weeks ago. Heaving masses of colourful people sucking on Jubes, which is also a song with words and has a reprise. Kind of Dunedin sound, Gizzy without Chills (it’s cold down there in Dunedin).
A pause, and a drone of expectation as if they are Luring The Badger of which there are none down there in Gizzy. This is their debut album, and it was mastered by Bob Macc of Subvert Central Mastering in Suffolk, England, which suggests a conspiracy theory about the jealousy of a DJ. But I bet they have badgers in Suffolk.
I’ll be frank (not Francis), this is not really my scene, yet I find myself tapping foot and nodding head, Entrain-ed in thought and trancing, certainly not dancing, but if it were it would be prancing. I do like 5innahalf , it’s fractional innit?
And then it’s Time For A Peachange.
Probably best served live, but then again if you’re shy about your moves just put the headphones on and tune out.
Keep an eye out for when Subset BC get permission to leave home and hit Auckland.
Or just buy the vinyl.
Oh, did I mention that the artwork which goes with this band is awesome? No?
The artwork which goes with this band is awesome!!!
About Subset BC
After much creative exploration, bassists Charles Barrie, Paulus Mckinnon and Ryan Raggett, together with Lincoln Wright and keyboard/synth player Matt Tong realised that the tones and grooves they could create with three basses, a plethora of effects, drums and keys was a truly unique sound - the sound of Subset BC.
Collectively brewed and birthed over the last 7 years, the songs and soundscapes of Subset BC cover terrain from soulful grooves and psychedelia to moody drum and bass and stoner rock.
Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Subset BC
Releases
Other Reviews By roger.bowie
12 Dec 2023 // by roger.bowie
Get your heads around this line-up: The singers: Jon Toogood, (lead and backing vocals), Julia Deans (lead and backing vocals), Dianne Swann (lead and backing vocals and occasional guitar), Samuel Flynn Scott (vocals and guitar), James Milne (lead and backing vocals), Milan Borich (Mick vocals) The players: Jol Mulholland (guitars and vocals), Brett Adams (lead guitar and vocals), Mike Hall (bass), Matthias Jordan (keyboards), Alastair Deverick (drums), Finn Scholes (trumpet, clarinet and percussion), Nick Atkinson (sax and percussion). Stopped spinning?
Read More...
A Crude Mechanical - Album Review: Discourse
08 Dec 2023 // by roger.bowie
Shane Warbrooke doesn’t believe in lyrics, because of the risk of lyrics being hi-jacked and meanings bent to suit ideologies which he doesn’t like. Well, such ideologies which most of us don’t like, truth be known, but then again, Beethoven didn’t write lyrics, so the freedom of speech counter argument only goes so far.
Read More...
Gig Review: The Phoenix Foundation @ Hollywood Avondale, Auckland - 24/11/2023
26 Nov 2023 // by roger.bowie
This is a first of many things. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen The Phoenix Foundation play live.
Read More...
Velvet Arrow - Album Review: Songs of Solitude
17 Nov 2023 // by roger.bowie
A Song Of Hope & Fear would normally be a contradiction in terms unless darkness prevails and light shines through, which is an appropriate metaphor for the debut album from Whangarei’s Velvet Arrow and the opening song, with Dan Stenhouse’s husky voice helping us through the night against a ghostly horror wail from Hannah Jane. After all it’s just a song to help you through the night, just the words that speak, it’s not real.
Read More...
13 Nov 2023 // by roger.bowie
What a feast of nostalgia we’ve had from Liberty Stage (Simone Williams) these past few years, as New Zealand’s finest have Come Together to cover the classic albums which made the soundtracks of our youth. In addition to this, there have also been special tributes like Tami Neilson’s rock ‘n roll party with Dinah Lee, just last month.
Read More...
Dimmer - Album Review: Live At The Hollywood
09 Nov 2023 // by roger.bowie
Wow, not very often that we see alive album these days, an unusual beast, but that’s we have, a 14-track monster from Dimmer, recorded from last year’s sold-out trilogy at the Hollywood Avondale. Which, if you didn’t get to go last year, you can still see on December 2nd at the Powerstation, unless, like me, you are going instead to The War on Drugs.
Read More...
Killergrams - EP Review: Lonely Nights In A Little Town
27 Oct 2023 // by roger.bowie
Someone walked out, and Tom Maxwell has lost his mind, in a gentle, acoustic way. Then his mind explodes in a cacophony of chaos, which might just be what it feels like, losing something that important.
Read More...
D.C. Maxwell - Album Review: Lone Rider
24 Oct 2023 // by roger.bowie
I’ve Been Wrong, but every once in a while, someone comes along and knocks you out. Random violence is not what this is about, but D.
Read More...
Most Viewed Artists
Latest Galleries
NZ Top 10 Singles
- APT.
ROSÉ And Bruno Mars - DIE WITH A SMILE
Lady Gaga And Bruno Mars - BIRDS OF A FEATHER
Billie Eilish - TASTE
Sabrina Carpenter - I LOVE YOU, I'M SORRY
Gracie Abrams - ESPRESSO
Sabrina Carpenter - SAILOR SONG
Gigi Perez - LOSE CONTROL
Teddy Swims - A BAR SONG (TIPSY)
Shaboozey - GOOD LUCK, BABE!
Chappell Roan
More Content on muzic.net.nz
Google Site Search
100% New Zealand Music
All content on this website is copyright to muzic.net.nz and other respective rights holders. Redistribution of any material presented here without permission is prohibited.
Report A Problem
